Broken Frontier

Blurring the line between heroism and nihilism; attacking evil where it lives – and kicking it while it's down!  They are the Intimidators -- and they're arriving this December in a brand new monthly series from Shadowline and Image Comics!

This winter, the latest creation from the mind of ShadowHawk creator Jim Valentino explodes into comic book stores under the watchful eyes of Xeric-winning creator Neil Kleid and famed Top Cow artist Miguel Montenegro. THE INTIMIDATORS (OCT051708), an ongoing action/comedyseries from Valentino's Shadowline imprint, introduces a group of heroes who prove that there is an "I" in their team.  In fact, there are three of them.

THE INTIMIDATORS are America's domestic ultrahuman strike force created to handle extinction level situations that send average  superheroes screaming for their lives.  When their latest mission opens a rip in the space/time continuum, the Intimidators draw through an American legend missing for over forty years: Astroman.

“Astroman is a fish out of water superhero with outdated ideals and patriotic integrity,” series creator Valentino says.  “Imagine taking a Silver Age hero like Barry Allen and dropping him into The Authority.”

Astroman is lost in a future he cannot come to terms with, as he struggles to marshal a team whose morals he objects to and methods he does not condone. But he believes that there's goodness within them all, and so on orders from the government to keep them in line, decides to remain in this era and make heroes out of each one of them. They, of course, can't wait to see him try.

Humor is a driving force behind THE INTIMIDATORS. When looking for a writer to infuse the project with a unique sense of humor balanced with a love of comics history, Valentino recruited writer Neil Kleid, author of the Xeric winning graphic novel NINETY CANDLES.  Kleid is joined on the book by comics newcomer Miguel Montenegro, whose work has graced books for Top Cow (The Covenant), Alias (Ted Noodleman TPB, up-coming Double Helix), MVCreations (Icons of Evil) and CrossGen (Spookshow International).

Kleid, who brings an improvisational comedy background as well experience in full length graphic novel storytelling to the plate, is excited by this foray into full length ongoing storytelling.  He says, “At its core, this book is about culture shock to the Nth degree. You and I, we take for granted all this new fangled turn-of-the-century technology. – like the rock videos and the electronic mail all the kids these days seem to like. But to a man from the Sixties, words like ‘DVD’, ‘iPod’ and ‘internet’ are new and unusual. Words like ‘patriot’ and ‘hero’ mean something to Astroman and confronting the Intimidators, a take-no-prisoners super-hero team that routinely uses large nuclear-powered cannons to equally scare off the robot mafia, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Girl Scouts, sends his entire worldview ass over elbows. Imagine asking Perry Como or Dean Martin if they’d like to jam with Anthrax or Snoop Dogg. And then laughing at them. Repeatedly.”

THE INTIMIDATORS (OCT051708), created by Jim Valentino and written and drawn by Neil Kleid and Miguel Montenegro, will be available for preordering from the October PREVIEWS and the first issue of the ongoing full-color series is set to hit stores in December 2005. THE INTIMIDATORS: Saving the World. Whether You Like It or Not.